PETALING JAYA: Former Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa is welcome to join PAS, as a few other politicians are set to join the party, said PAS vice-president Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar.
Samsuri said PAS would be happy to have a prominent figure like Annuar, an Umno veteran, former minister and former MP for Ketereh.
“I believe that experienced people like Annuar and others have roles (that they can play) to strengthen the party,” he said after a breaking of fast event in Serdang, Selangor, organised by the Terengganu government.
He added that other leaders who were disappointed with their party’s leadership would be joining PAS soon, though he did not elaborate.
Annuar was sacked from Umno in December. There has been speculation that he would be joining PAS soon.
In February, he said he was “seriously thinking” about joining a new political party that matched his political values of “protecting Islam, the Malays and the country”.
On another matter, Samsuri, who is Terengganu menteri besar, said the state government had received an advance of the annual “petroleum royalty” from Putrajaya.
“We are still discussing with the federal government, but we received a small advance of the allocation a few days ago. Not the full amount yet,” he said, without disclosing the exact amount.
In February, Samsuri said he hoped that Anwar Ibrahim’s government would continue the payment of the special grant, which the federal government pays in lieu of royalty.
Samsuri said the state will seek the Treasury’s explanation whether the previous grants were payments for petroleum royalty.
However, law minister Azalina Othman Said and economy minister Rafizi Ramli have said that state governments are only entitled to oil royalties if oil is found within three nautical miles of their shores.
Terengganu and Kelantan did not qualify for the 5% royalty because Petronas extracts crude oil beyond the three nautical mile limit.
The special grants had also been called “wang ehsan”, or goodwill payment, in the past. In 2022, “wang ehsan” worth RM344.60 million was paid to Kelantan while Terengganu received RM1.69 billion. - FMT
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